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gdaunton

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Everything posted by gdaunton

  1. What's this? New AP-C students? Welp a new dawn has... dawned and I have made the short stroll of 18 miles to RIT. So what has changed? Not much. Right now you AP-C'ers are taking, I assume, mostly college level courses and believe it or not they are actual college level classes, like no joke. With Calculus, Physics and other classes I was (and you are) taking the equivalent of a Freshman year in college. If it sounds intimidating its because it is, taking that big of a step a year early is very tough and will, at points, seem like the worst decision of your life. Don't get me wrong senior year is lots of fun, but remember, if a class like Calc or Physics is getting you down, hold on. At some point or another you will have to realize that not all knowledge is easy to learn and high school is the best place for that. Mr. Fullerton is amazing and he, unlike a college professor, will help you through every step if he needs to. Enjoy yourself and make it a great year! Oh yeah, READ THE TEXTBOOK (I have to pay for mine, use it while it's free) Have fun and stay classy, Shwiby
  2. Launch time: about 1:50 Team Member Present: all Play by Play: launch, solids exhausted decoupled, main sail burns up until low orbit, poodle used to achieve full orbit, transfer close to periapsis of orbit, retrograde burn to achieve orbit around mun, decrease orbit until on collision course, slow decent, ran out of fuel just before landing, hit at about 20 m/s engine, fuel tank and nose cone explode, rover miraculously lands wheels down intact attached to decoupler, decoupler decoupled, rover drives off. Time of Flight: 1 day, 5 hours, 55 min, 31 seconds Summery: sweet fast rover landed on the surface of the moon. We can now explore the surface in style and comfort. All systems are in order and running well. Might try to find the Apollo 11 landing site. Learnings: Rovers are hard to get off of the ship you put them on, until the ship underneath it explodes. Will look into a safer way to deploy rover that involves less random explosions. Strategies: Continue forward with our landing skills and try to figure out what to do next Milestones: Working rover on the mun Available Funds: Waiting on the CFO to put in the hours to get this measure, also not sure who the CFO is. Will try and find that out. Well I found the CFO and he said we still have $149,228 in the bank.
  3. Team Name: Garalles Available Funds: $192,738 Vehicle name: Cool mun rover parts: 2 large tank 1 main sail 6 solids 6 radial decouplers 1 advanced sas 3 decouplers 1 poodle 1 medium tank 3 landing struts 4 rove max wheels 9 small solar panels 2 small mono tanks 2 rcs boosters 1 linear rcs booster 3 batteries 1 medium rcs tank 2 lights 1 mk2 cockpit 1 large nose cone total: 43,510 design goals: get a speedy rover to the moon launch goal: take our proven speedy rover to the muns surface and do some sweet doughnuts pilot plan: get into orbit around the earth, transfer to the muns orbit, decrease orbit and descend to the surface of the mun.
  4. yep it has five docking ports, I figured I'd fit as many as I could on it.
  5. Launch Time: about 1:50 Team Members Present: Gareth Play-by-Play: Initial stage with solid boosters and main sail fired. Solids exhausted, sperated, angling ship to 45° toward the water off of kerbal space center. Main sail burnt until in sub space. Main sail detached, poodle engaged. 45° angle maintained up till disired orbital height is reached. Positioned at 90° in direction of trajectory. Wait until apoapsis. Power up utill orbit is expanded to a realativly square orbit. Deployed solar panels and lights. Objective acheved Time-of-Flight: about 38 hours Summary: With this successful journey a manned space station and perhaps future refueling station has been put in place. Opportunities / Learnings: How to get a large object out of the atmosphere and into orbit Strategies / Project Timeline: Will perhaps try to send up some large fuel tanks to create a refuelling station and perhaps build on the space station Milestone Awards Presented: Manned Space station around kerban Available Funds: $62,738
  6. Team Name: Garalles Available Funds: $114,078 Vehicle Name: space station Vehicle Parts List and Cost: 1 main sail 1 large fuel tank 6 solids 6 radial decouplers 2 medium tanks 2 decouplers 1 poodle 1 small tank 1 advanced sas 1 mk2 lander-can 6 structural beams 8 small rcs tanks 8 rcs boosters 5 docking ports 4 large solar panels 4 spot lights 4 batteries 4 battery packs total: 51,340 Design Goals: Create a space station that has enough ports to eventually become a refueling station. Launch Goal: Figure out how to launch a space station base in to orbit Pilot Plan: Primary stage is the solid boosters plus some help from the main sail. After the soilds are gone the main sail will carry the ship in to sub space where the poodle will take over to put the station into orbit.
  7. Launch Time: about 2:00 Team Members Present: Gareth and Clayton Play-by-Play: launch, solid stage released, aim for orbit, main sail released, poodle used to create stable orbit, backwards burn at apoapsis to create reentry, reentry achieved slight regression burn to slow down ship, parachutes deployed, safe landing Photographs: Time-of-Flight: I think it was about a 2 days flight Summary: The mission was a great success, the ship was recovered along with the kerbal. This was a momentous occasion for all of kerban. Opportunities / Learnings: How to achieve a stable orbit and have a safe reentry to kerban Strategies / Project Timeline: We will next perhaps try for the mun Milestone Awards Presented: manned stable orbit Available Funds: $54,078
  8. Team Name: Garalles Available Funds: $66,539 Vehicle Name: orbit Vehicle Parts List and Cost: 1 command pod mk1: 600 1 MK16 Parachute: 422 3 MK2-R radial-mount parachute: 700 6 rockomax BACC solid fuel booster:800 1 Rockomax brand decoupler: 200 1 TR-18A Stack decoupler: 600 1 Rockomax Jumbo-64 Fuel tank: 12500 1 mainsail: 850 6 Hydraulic detachment manifold: 200 1 Rockomax fuel tank: 1800 1 poodle engine: 600 1 SAS Module: 600 1 adapter 02: 50 Total: 24,922 Design Goals: make a successful stable orbit and have little room for disaster while doing so Launch Goal: create a manned stable orbit and return to kerban unharmed Pilot Plan: The pilot will be positioning the ship for a proper course for orbit and then once the stable orbit is reached, prepare a course for reentry
  9. Launch Time: about 1:20 Team Members Present: Just Gareth Play-by-Play: Solid Boosters Fired, First stage released, parachutes deployed, saftly drifts back to kerban Photographs: Time-of-Flight: about 30 min Summary: Kerbal safely reached 10K meters and drifted back to kerban Opportunities / Learnings: Staging and proper parachute deployment Strategies / Project Timeline: We feel that we are ready to go for a manned orbit Milestone Awards Presented: manned 10K launch Available Funds: $66,539
  10. Team Name: Garalles Available Funds: 70,000 Vehicle Name: 10k Vehicle Parts List and Cost: 1 Command pod MK1: 600 1Mk16 Paracute:422 1 TR-18A Stack Decoupler: 600 3 Rockomax BACC solid fuel booster: 800 3 TT-38K Radial Decoupler: 600 1 Advanced SAS Module: 1100 Total: 6922 Design Goals: Be able to easily reach 10k meters and safely back. Launch Goal: Gain 10K meters and deploy parachutes with minimal chance of harm to all kerbals involved Pilot Plan: Just a solid stage of rockets than rockets will be released and the capsle will drift back to kerban with the aid of 4 parachutes
  11. THANK GOD. That strange light on the martian surface that the curiosity rover captured and I talked about here has been explained. The supposed UFO, martian confirming, NASA is hiding things from us, light has been dismissed by NASA in a recent statement as a cosmic-ray. "These [lights] can be caused by cosmic-ray hits or sunlight glinting from rock surfaces, as the most likely explanations." explained the government pawns at NASA. Cosmic-ray or not why did this make so much news? Why did I write about this? Hell even National Geographic took to the conspiracy (nobody wrote about it). Slow news day I guess.
  12. A new study suggests that procrastination may not be behavioral, and perhaps be determined by genes. The Study ties impulsiveness to procrastination as procrastination, in most cases, is the impulse to put off mundane tasks in favor of more pleasurable ones. I could think of someone that fits that description. I can't say that I'm not a procrastinator, however I tend not to be that impulsive, however I do like to put off mundane tasks for better ones. But can you blame me, who wouldn't rather be reading my blog post instead of doing work? No one.
  13. NASA's next mission might be their coolest yet. What could top landing on the moon, curiosity and voyager? Landing on an asteroid. NASA's next mission is to survey and map 1999 RQ36 or Bennu, collect samples, and then return to earth in 2018. They want to collect said samples to analyze the content of the asteroid to see if asteroids could have had a hand in creating life on Earth. The mission should kick off in September of 2016 and will be the first to involve landing on an asteroid.
  14. So as you all know by the head lines and angry tree huggers, our use of fossil fuels is going to cause climate change and we are all going to die in a grand and spectacular apocalypse. A recent study only cements our impending doom, the study analyzed the effect of the melting permafrost up in the great north and the news is not good. It seems that as the permafrost melts it releases a lot of methane which is much worse of a greenhouse gas than carbon-dioxide. Because of the melting the ratio of carbon dioxide (CO2) to methane (CH4) could change from 10:1 to up to 1:1 which could accelerate climate change a butt load (get it methane and butts). So stock up on your guns, gas, water and food, the apocalypse is nearly on our door step.
  15. Our solar system is very well cataloged. We know all the planets, their moons and almost all the meteors that reside in our solar system. However, once you get out side of our solar system we have a few planets, but no moons...until now. Recently the first Exomoon (exo meaning outside our solar system) has been found. The host Exoplanet in question is called MOA-2011-BLG-262 and is about the size of 4 Jupiter's with its supposed moon smaller than the Earth. All this "supposed" stuff is because the moon hasn't actually been seen, the only reason we think it is there is because of how the light from that region bends and distorts due to the gravitational pull of the planet. The process is called gravitational lensing and is what we use to find most exoplanets as most telescopes aren't powerful enough to actually see the planet.
  16. The next processor is going to be very, very powerful. Current processors use a series of very very small electrical "switches" to dictate one of two possible states: closed or open, or in computer speak, a 1 or 0. The computer collects these various 1s and 0s puts them in order and interprets them. This basic raw computer language is called binary and is the driving process behind all computer functions. So the more switches in a processor, the more powerful it is. So why is the next processor going to be so much more powerful? Well just recently scientists have figured out how to make the transition from tiny wires to using single photons and atoms. That's right scientists have figured out how to use atoms to alter the state of a photon and vise-versa. So instead of nano meter sized switches we will have switches the size of an atom. Crazy.
  17. Cars are complex machines. The run off of the oxidation and ignition of gasoline which drives several pistons attached to a drive shaft which spins the wheels. However a certain car made by a certain company named Tesla runs entirely differently. It runs off of batteries which power an electric motor which sends power to the wheels. However if this process doesn't involve violent explosions like a gas car does, how come a few Tesla's still catch fire? Well its all about what the batteries have inside of them. Consider this, you are driving you brand new Tesla down a country lane. Of course, with it being a Tesla, you are doing a steady 50-60 mph down that lovely country lane. Now imagine that you lose control of the car and smash into the curb on the side of the road. If you were in a gas car, no problem, you might have a ruined bumper, but you would soon be on your way. However in a Tesla, since the batteries are near the bottom of the car your tale might proceed a bit differently. When you hit the curb if something manages to get through the thick battery shield, (we are talking worse case scenario here) and punctures one of the large lithium-ion cell batteries and the fluid spills out of which contains pure lithium you might be in trouble. Because lithium is part of the alkaline metal family, if it becomes exposed to the water vapor in the air or on the road a violent reaction could occur which might include many small explosions and eventually a fire. Lithium-ion batteries are great and can hold immense amounts of charge, however it is also a small bomb if it overheats and ruptures. Fun Stuff. P. S. your phone uses a lithium-ion battery, food for thought
  18. An image from the nav cam on the Curiosity rover on April 3rd reveals a bright light in the distance. A sign from extraterrestrials? a bright rock? people prepare your foil caps.
  19. The future of intergalactic travel may be closer than you think. Although the process may be a few hundred years down the road, some scientists believe that the starship of the future could be powered by a black hole. As Newton's famous equation states all matter has a energy according to e = mc2. Currently the process in which we launch our rockets (burning tons of liquid and solid fuel to produce thrust) only yields under 1% of the energy that matter is capable of. This is where the black hole comes in. Black hole dissipate all the energy from the matter they consume as radiation. A very small black hole could be created and fed small bits of matter of which would create immense amounts of energy that could propel a ship to near light speeds. The future of space travel maybe a bit darker than we thought.
  20. I saw a video recently that you all might enjoy. It shows what the moon would look like if it were a disco ball and orbiting at the height of the international space station. Check it out:
  21. So I should get (-lamda*r)/(2*pi*e0)+c for the electric potential right?
  22. Hello, I got to this question and was not sure how to go about it. I sorta had an idea but that was for the line charge of a fixed length, so do I just ignore the lengths and assume that E= lamda/(4 pi e0) and then use V=int(E*dl)?
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